Tamara Lich, a key figure in the 2022 convoy protest that paralyzed downtown Ottawa for nearly a month, is back in town Wednesday to ask a court for permission to travel internationally, including going on a Caribbean cruise and visiting the White House.
Lich was found guilty in April 2025 of mischief and other offences for her role in organizing and sustaining the Ottawa protest, which ended only after the federal government triggered the Emergencies Act, allowing police to clear the streets.
The Ontario Court of Justice later found the protest had been “neither peaceful nor lawful.” For her role, Lich was handed a conditional sentence including 12 months under house arrest.
A month after being sentenced last October, Lich asked for and received permission to leave her home in Medicine Hat, Alta., to attend her grandchildren’s school. Since then, she has travelled to other provinces for her job with Rebel News, a far-right Canadian media company.
While Lich hasn’t offered the court a detailed itinerary, her latest request mentions attending press events at the White House, going on a seven-day Caribbean cruise with Rebel News, and travelling to Arizona to speak with Rob Schneider, a right-wing comedian whose controversial content prompted his removal from a Saskatchewan stage in 2024.
In an affidavit supporting Lich’s request, Rebel Media’s founder and CEO Ezra Levant said he believes “the U.S. embassy is ready to assist us and Tamara in doing important journalism in the U.S., including interviewing key newsmakers.”
On its website, Rebel News says it will soon announce the speakers attending this winter’s cruise, promising that they will be “individuals who have been at the centre of some of the biggest political and cultural battles of recent years, and who bring perspectives you won’t hear on legacy media.”
Lich published a book through Rebel News in 2023, and has filed at least four stories per month on the outlet’s website since March.
She has attended and reported online about independence events in Saskatchewan and Alberta, as well as an Independence Day celebration at the U.S. Embassy in Ottawa on July 4, where she was photographed with the U.S. Ambassador to Canada Pete Hoekstra.
Lich also hosts a podcast called House Arrest with Chris Barber, a Saskatchewan trucker who was convicted alongside her for his role in the convoy protest. Her published content focuses on her experiences during the 2022 protest, as well as on current events and personal updates.
But Crown prosecutors say the additional exemptions Lich is now seeking would give her a “blank cheque” to travel internationally. They’re opposing the request, arguing that granting it is “unnecessary” and would diminish the impact of her sentence “to an unacceptable extent.”
They also argue that granting her the freedom to promote and profit from her involvement in the convoy protest — the very activity for which she’s serving a sentence — brings “disrepute” to the judicial process that led to her conviction.
“Allowing Lich to be granted a ‘blank cheque’ in approving international travel for the purposes of self-promotion under the guise of journalism” fails to reflect sentencing principles, the Crown argues in court filings.
Lich has been providing her lawyer Lawrence Greenspon with detailed itineraries prior to any domestic travel, and would continue to do so if she’s granted an exemption to travel internationally.
“People are going to be critical of [Lich], they’re going to be critical of the Freedom Convoy, there’s nothing we can do to change that,” Greenspon said. “She has abided by the terms of her conditional sentence to the letter.”
Lich has launched her own civil case against prosecutors, the Ottawa Police Service and others. She’s also appealing the conviction for which she’s currently serving a sentence.
Prosecutors are appealing the original conviction and sentence of both Lich and Barber, hoping to overturn their acquittal on the charge of intimidation and pushing for harsher punishments.
Meanwhile, a civil court injunction filed during the protest has morphed into a class action by downtown Ottawa residents that’s crawling its way through the justice system.
Earlier this month, another key convoy figure, Pat King, learned he’ll be re-sentenced after the Ontario Court of Appeal sided with Crown prosecutors who argued his original punishment was too lenient and a conviction for intimidation was warranted.
